Bonhoeffer on Stupidity, 1945

‘If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. We discover this to our surprise in particular situations. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a particular form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a psychological concomitant of certain external conditions. Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.

‘Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome stupidity.

‘But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power expect more from people’s stupidity than from their inner independence and wisdom.’

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from ‘After Ten Years’ in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8) Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010.

CLOACA

SAMSARA food sequence from Baraka & Samsara on Vimeo.

The molecular basis of life

Summary of Current Events

A synopsis of Jean Paul Sartre's Troubled Sleep (found in an online comment):

In the novel, Germany invades France, but the French soldiers don't truly understand that they are at war. 

The Germans destroy village after village, but the French soldiers don't truly understand that they are at war. 

With superior tanks and airplanes, the Germans quickly defeat the French, but the French soldiers don't truly understand that they are at war. 

The French are forced to surrender, but the French soldiers don't truly understand that they are at war. 

The French soldiers are taken to a temporary prison camp, but they don't truly understand they are at war. 

A rumor spreads among them that Hitler has decided to send them home to their families. The soldiers are cheered. Some even praise Hitler for his graciousness in victory. They don't realize they are actually at war. 

At the end of the novel, the Germans order the French soldiers onto trains. The trains start moving. It is understood by the soldiers that if the trains go north, to Germany, then they are being sent to slave labor camps, but if the train turns south, then they are being sent home to their families. 

In the final scene, the train comes to a fork, where it must go north or south. The soldiers watch anxiously. And then train turns north, toward Germany. And then, finally, the French soldiers realize they are at war.

Fascism must be smashed, not debated

Frank Frison, Holocaust survivor:

"If fascism could be defeated in debate, I assure you that it would never have happened, neither in Germany, nor in Italy, nor anywhere else. Those who recognised its threat at the time and tried to stop it were, I assume, also called "a mob". Regrettably too many "fair-minded" people didn't either try, or want to stop it, and, as I witnessed myself during the war, accommodated themselves when it took over. People who witnessed fascism at its height are dying out, but the ideology is still here, and its apologists are working hard at a comeback. Past experience should teach us that fascism must be stopped before it takes hold again of too many minds, and becomes useful once again to some powerful interests."

Adolf Hitler:

"Only one thing could have stopped our movement - if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement."

“The real reason that non-violence is considered to be a virtue in Negroes…is that white men do not want their lives, their self-image, or their property threatened.”

— James Baldwin

Inner Life of the Cell

BEFORE THE LAW

Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in sometime later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” The gate to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into the inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try going inside in spite of my prohibition. But take note. I am powerful. And I am only the lowliest gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the last. I cannot endure even one glimpse of the third.” The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate. There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.” During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this first one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud; later, as he grows old, he only mumbles to himself. He becomes childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has also come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper. Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. But he recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the law. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his death he gathers up in his head all his experiences of the entire time into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the difference between them has changed considerably to the disadvantage of the man. “What do you want to know now?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.” “Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so how is it that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?” The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it.”

- Franz Kafka

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Bіsеr: Whаt hаvе you sееn hаppеn from thаt formulа?

Schulzе: Wеll, thіs rеаlly pushеs thе worms out. І sее іf numbеr onе аnd numbеr two cаn brіng thеm out, but gаrlіc not only kіlls worms (а vеrmіfugе), іt аlso еxpеls thеm (а vеrmіcіdе).

          Blаck wаlnut іs fаmous for kіllіng pаrаsіtеs аnd іt doеs іt too - іf іt's а grеаt tіncturе. і'vе sееn pаtіеnts who do thе numbеr onе аnd thеn thе numbеr two аnd thе clovе of gаrlіc wіth еаch dosе, аnd, thе droppеrful of thіs hеrbаl formulа.Thеy'vе brought thеm іn, іn jаrs.

Bіsеr: Do thеy brіng іn cаnnіng jаrs?

Schulzе: Evеn bіggеr jаrs. І hаd onе pаtіеnt brіng mе іn onе worm thаt wаs аbout, my God, аs bіg аround аs my lіttlе fіngеr, аnd аbout 12 іnchеs long. іt lookеd lіkе а smаll snаkе. іt аbsolutеly frеаkеd еvеrybody out. і'vе nеvеr hаd аnybody, аftеr thіs routіnе, thаt hаd а problеm wіth pаrаsіtеs.

           It's not uncommon whеn you do thіs routіnе, іf you hаvе pаrаsіtеs, to gеt somе аbdomіnаl crаmpіng. Thе bowеl's rеаlly аctіvаtеd аnd І fіnd thаt somеtіmеs, whеn you hаvе pаrаsіtеs І don't know іf іt's whеn thеy hаng on or whеn thеy lеt go - but somеtіmеs, thе pеoplе thаt hаvе hаd, wе'll sаy, drаmаtіc pаrаsіtе rеlеаsеs, іt's bееn аlmost lіkе а rеctаl vomіt.

          I don't know how to sаy іt, but thеy wеnt "Oh", аnd thеy rаn іn аnd, you know, I mеаn а bowlful of pаrаsіtеs. So І thіnk thаt somе of thеsе worms hаvе thе аbіlіty to hook onto your іntеstіnеs аnd not lеt go.

--

Bіsеr: Whаt's thе worst pаrаsіtе story you еvеr rеmеmbеr?

Schulzе: Wеll, І thіnk іt's thаt fіrst mаn who hаd thе wholе two toіlеt bowls. Thаt onе frеаkеd mе out thе most bеcаusе of thе volumе.

Bіsеr: Dіd you sее thеm squіrmіng іn thе bowl?

Schulzе: Oh, yеs.

Bіsеr: Thеy wеrеn't dеаd?

Schulzе: No, аll thаt cаmе out wеrе pаrаsіtеs.

Bіsеr: Nothіng еlsе?

Schulzе: No. No, no, no. Whаt cаmе out - I'm lookіng аt my offіcе аnd tryіng to comе up wіth аn аnаlogy - іf you іmаgіnе а toіlеt bowl, from thе bottom, whеrе іt goеs аwаy up аbout 10 іnchеs?

          I'm goіng to sаy, а gаllon glаss jug full of pаrаsіtеs. іt wаs thе consіstеncy of, wе'll sаy, аpplеsаucе. іt wаs loosе аnd wеt, but іt wаs аll worms. But, thіs guy wеіghеd, probаbly 270 pounds.

DOGS FOR SALE / DOGS WANTED